Do not vote for the Guns-Over-People party. For dogcatcher. For school board. For anything.

People may have forgotten the cruel and repressive legislation that was the hallmark of the GOP-controlled House and Senate under Trump. This post is just a reminder – their bills are already on the rolls, waiting to reappear, if we don’t do our job and keep them out of office. Vote, Vote, Vote!

Democratic legislators are trying to pass legislation to limit the damage caused by gun use. We have two posts (here) and (here) on actions to you can take to encourage your legislators and to remind them that their reelection depends on their votes. Make sure your relatives in red states call theirs as well.

(Note: You can add H.R. 4992 – 21 to Buy Act and H.R.3015 – Raise the Age Act to your lists when you talk to your legislators.)

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Gun violence is a national health emergency. Ask Biden and our legislators to treat it that way.

The Guns-Over-People party has trained us to see gun violence as only a societal, mental or a criminal issue.

“It’s time to flip the narrative. These mass shootings, and the 1000s of daily tragedies behind them, are not inevitable. We can reduce gun deaths, just like we did for cars, by acknowledging that firearm injury is, at its root, a health problem—and that solutions are within reach.” – Megan Ranney MD MPH, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Dean of the School of Public Health, Brown University.

We know that more Americans die of firearm deaths than car accidents. In fact, firearms are now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in this country. The GOP gives us nothing but “thoughts & prayers, and lies about “mental health“, while actively refusing to fund it. We can do better.

Action #1: Tell our legislators to start listening to the nation’s health experts.

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QUICK ACTION: Deadline today, Tuesday 5/31, to demand that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) speed up the shift to 100% Electric Vehicles.

QUICK ACTION: Tell CARB that the health of our communities can’t take 5 extra years of pollution and to change their goal to curb tailpipe pollution from 2035 to 2030.

Fastest action: Fill in your name on this form letter by Food & Water Watch. (https://secure.foodandwaterwatch.org/act/demand-faster-shift-100-clean-vehicles-california)
Slightly slower, more effective: There’s an editable section of the letter right after “Dear California Air Resources Board.” ERASE that whole section and tell this board why you need them to step up and make this change faster.
- Add a personal story about how LUNG, CARDIOVASCULAR OR COGNITIVE ISSUES have affected your friends and family and that you know that these are connected to tailpipe pollution.
- Add a personal story about how CLIMATE CHANGE has affected your friends and family and that you know that this is connected to tailpipe pollution.

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Social and environmental justice starts at home. Join in.

You don’t have to get arrested on the steps of the nation’s capitol or our state legislature to make meaningful change. This Memorial Day weekend, please carve out a couple of hours to help your neighbors and our community grow stronger.

Action #1: Share this information on Sunday’s social justice fair – both with those you know who could use it, and everybody else!
Action #2: Reach out to your neighbors to vote “YES” on Measures A & B for clean water for all and environmental justice for neighborhoods impacted by the oil industry. We include a list on how to fight back against those oil industry stooges, who solumnly intone misinformation and utter nonsense on endless flyers and commercials, funded by an $8 million dollar campaign.

Action #1: Share this information for Sunday’s social justice fair – both with those you know who could use it, and everybody else!

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“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”

(Title quote from the Onion. Graphic quote from video below)

FEDERAL – Action #1: Call your senators to pass H.R.8 and H.R. 1446. Then, more importantly, ask your friends and relatives with GOP senators to call theirs! Every day. Over and over. Make their phones ring off their desks!

(Teach them how to make their calls faster here!)

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More CA bills – maybe they thought no one would notice these attacks on rooftop solar…

More sneaky plays by our fossil fuel industry friends…

Action #1: “Best intentions run amok” or deliberate sabotage by the utilities’ monopoly? Doesn’t matter! “NO” on SB-1385.

Among the hundreds of bills our legislators are considering, very few have led to groups not normally on the same side – including tenants’ advocacy organizations, property owners, property managers, builders, and non-profit affordable housing developers – to come together. But this is the case here: all oppose SB 1385. This is not a serious proposal to address either the existential crisis of climate change or our state’s housing unaffordability crisis. By competing with existing, successful rooftop solar programs to give hundreds of thousands of tenants in multi-family housing access to solar thus helping reduce the cost of their utility bills, SB 1385 actually makes matters worse. (Read more here)

Minimal script for your state senator: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Senator [___] to vote “NO” on (SB 1385) Local planning: housing: commercial zones.

Action #2: OK – this one is a straight-out attack on rooftop solar. “NO” on AB-2143.

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Time to pay attention to state bills!

Legislation is rushing through both CA chambers’ for their floor votes, and as usual, some great bills are being crushed and some turds are floating to the top. Time to amplify the voices of our allies! We’ve made the calls as short as possible and yes, you can combine them.

Action #1: BRADY – Call for better gun laws!
Action #2: SIERRA CLUB – Two “YES” and one “NO!”
Action #3: PRO-Choice California – Push all thirteen bills through.
Action #4: “Best intentions” meets the internet to make a horrible baby!

Action #1: BRADY – Call for better gun laws!

(From Ruth Borenstein, Brady California Legislative and Policy Chair) “These four bills are evidence-based solutions that will protect public safety and save lives… Ghost guns pose one of the greatest threats to our communities: They are unserialized, fully-functioning firearms that require NO background check. Because they’re so easy to obtain, they’ve proliferated across California and have been used in deadly acts of violence, including the tragic Saugus High School shooting and in everyday acts of gun violence.

Minimal script for assemblymember: Minimal script for assemblymember: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Assemblymember [____] to vote “YES” on the following 3 bills that will protect public safety and save lives: [You don’t have to say the parts in (…)]

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Indivisible Ventura’s Voting Guide for the 2022 Primary Election

Note: this post will be periodically updated! (05/18/2022)

QUICK LINKS TO: Federal candidates, State candidates, County candidates, Local Measures, Voting/registration information, Ballot drop-off locations, In-person voting locations, Other voting guides/endorsements.

We believe we have promises to keep to Rep. Elijah Cummings, to Rep. John Lewis and to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg – that we would care for the country they sacrificed so much for. And after watching the GOP abandon any pretense to democracy, after watching raucous school board meetings with angry parents yelling out fake CRT beliefs and demanding the banning of books, after watching red state legislatures pass harmful anti-LGBTQIA laws, anti-abortion penalties and racist voting restrictions – we find that we actually share one belief with the extreme right-wing – that there are no unimportant elections, no unimportant public offices, and no elected offices where the beliefs of the candidate don’t matter, even those deemed “non-partisan.”

Although Indivisible Ventura is not officially endorsing any particular candidate, we’ve pulled together endorsements from other groups we respect for your consideration, along with relevant reference materials. We need to win.
Note – we NEVER RECOMMEND VOTING FOR SOMEONE WITHOUT ENDORSEMENTS! Leadership implies trust has been earned. Minimum ask for candidates: Find people who would trust you with the power of the office you seek and ask them to endorse you. Can’t find anyone? Get involved in the community in a hands-on way and earn that trust.
Not all the people/races listed in our guide are on your ballot. Check your sample ballot or click here.
It’s OK to leave parts blank.
Read political flyers carefully. Who paid for it? Is it from a political party, or are they pay-to-play “slate” mailers? Read this article from 2016.
You don’t need to be an expert to become involved. Phonebanking! Textbanking! Letter Writing! and other great things to do!: Click here.
This post will be updated as more endorsements come in.

We fell down research rabbit holes for you so that you and our husbands wouldn’t have to. It’s now on all of us to fix what we can and to create a path to a more just and sustainable future for this country that we love. At a polling booth, or at our own kitchen tables, armed with a pen and a ballot, we are going to fight for the American dream for everyone.

If you were actually looking for an absolutely non-partisan guide, go here and here.

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The rally is over. Now what?

Don’t just wait for the next rally or march. Your own pressure campaign for democracy is waiting in your phone.

At the rally we asked you to contact your legislators every day. Here is our handout on HOW to program your phone to make it really fast to do, and WHY you need to call your own Democratic legislators as well.

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Join in the action against Medicare profiteering!

While we’re distracted with abortion rights, the GOP and their Wall Street donors are busy trying ruin something else that we value.

Action #1: On May 23, learn more about how corporate vultures plan to privatize Medicare and how to stop them. Share this in your social circles!
Action #2: Sign a petition to Joe to stop this nonsense before more vulnerable people are hurt.
Action #3: Make a call to Joe to “executive action” this away.
Action #4: Call your representative to fight against Trump’s corrupt leftovers.

This action was shared with us by our Ventura County chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). The nationwide organization’s mission statement is simple:

“The answer to our health care crisis is clear. We propose a publicly financed, non-profit single-payer national health program that would fully cover medical care for all Americans.

The video below explains the ACO REACH program, which was originally proposed by the Trump administration.

The GOP says the acronym stands for the Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health. Hmmm…isn’t that what Medicare is already doing?
Here’s the real translation – the American Corporations & Oligarchs – REACHing into and draining our Medicare fund dry. Under this program, private equity and ventura capitalist firms, who have already wreaked havoc on the wheelchair and air ambulance industries, will finally be allowed bring their particular blend of toxic greed to the Medicare trough, right alongside the private insurance companies who are already making bank with their aptly named “Medicare Advantage” plans.